xenharmonic (microtonal wiki)

I write electronic dance music and have used microtones in almost all my work since 2010.

What was your path to discovering alternate tunings?

My path to discovery actually took a lot longer than it should have. Since young, I've used the internet to research everything I'm interested in. At some point I became aware of microtonality and tried to get into it. I remember the first time, hearing a piece of quarter-tone percussion music from somewhere. I was so turned off by this crazy out-of-tune art music, and that was that.

Later, I got into gamelan music and realised that it too was microtonal. For a little while I wanted to compose my own gamelan music, but then I became curious about xen music in general. I got hold of 3 albums which inspired me greatly: Five Hemispheres by Randy Winchester, the Microtonal Etudes by Easley Blackwood, and Beauty in the Beast by Wendy Carlos. Then Elaine Walker's Bohlen-Pierce studies (recommended to me by Randy Winchester) inspired me further. I appreciated the pop-sensibilities in her recordings, so I started to apply xen scales to my own. The first attempts (mainly 15-tet and BP) failed. I finished up my last 12-tet record and continued my attempts to apply microtonality. About a year later I released my first microtonal album Golden Hour.

What are your current/past/future particular interests?

I compose electronic first and foremost; being a xen-head comes second. This whole xen thing is really new for all of us and I'm still learning every day. I like to experiment with different tunings and change it up. But 'being microtonal' isn't the only goal; it's just a part of what I do.

I'm particularly interested in the album as a format for electronic music. It's one of the great musical forms of our time. My own work is grouped up into albums and EPs.

Since 2010 I've run a small, online record label called split-notes. We release microtonal music that carries a groove. That means I leave the really experimental xen works for other labels to pick up. Each release on split-notes is available as a free download. My goal is to introduce more people to xen music without scaring them away with bowed cymbals, phase-locked just intonation drones, MIDI songs and other such nonsense.

What instruments or means have you successfully used in the making of microtonal music? Recommendations?

I run Ableton Live 9 and Max/MSP on Windows, using various VST/VSTi plugins. That's my way, but it's not the only way to get a sound.

My recommendations:

Acoustic instruments for people who like to play:

Get a microtonal fretboard fitted on a guitar. Ron Sword has written many scale books for microtonal guitars.
Kalimba can be retuned easily. I got one on the ultra cheap from eBay.
Bohlen-Pierce clarinet if you're into BP.
Build experimental instruments out of stuff lying around.
Udderbot, fretless guitar, slide guitar, kazoo, viola, cello, violin, double bass, sing, whistle and hum etc.

Electronic stuff (more my kind of thing):

Xen-Arts produces freeware microtonal synths which are very powerful. Start here. (VST, Win only.)
Both of the above scale tools allow full microtuning of electronic instruments. There is a good list of VSTs on KVR. Some of these are also available as AUs for the Mac heads.
Apple's Logic features built-in instruments which can be microtuned (though with some limitations).
For orchestral sounds: Garritan Personal Orchestra 4
If you want mad sound manipulation try: Camel Audio Alchemy
A really good one: Albino by Linplug
Classic softsynth: z3ta+ (z3ta+ 2 does not allow microtuning).
ZynAddSubFX is a freeware synthesiser but I found it quite buggy.

You might want some kind of software to record, catalogue and analyse the scales you come up with:

If you're on Windows or Linux get Scala for this.
If you're on Mac try LMSO if it still exists. Scala can run on Mac but you have to be a wiz to install it apparently.

Scales to jam in (for the absolute newbie):

5-edo (cannot possibly sound wrong no matter what notes you press)
7-edo (sounds like a wonky version of a normal diatonic scale)

Scales to jam in (for the budding xen pioneer):

Just intonation (really harmonious by some arbitrary standard involving ratios)
EDOs: 8 9 10 11 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 (you can go higher, but it becomes unwieldly)
Literally too many others to mention.